There are soooo many folks on the KDP forum who embark on what they think is a get rich quick scheme and are sorely disappointed. They do little to no actual research, or decide that Tiktok Tom or You-Tube Eunice must know all there is to know.
Nope. Sorry. It’s not a get rich quick scheme, it’s not a passive income.
Here’s some advice to would be publishers….
1 – MAKE SURE YOUR BOOK IS READY to be published – again, this is a business. You wouldn’t go into any other business with little to no knowledge. Customers expect a decent product, which has been properly formatted and (preferably professionally) edited. At the very least get the book beta read and proofread. Would you buy a book full of typos, plot holes, badly formatted etc? Thought not.
Every book has something that needs attention. But, in part, that’s a matter of opinion. However the basic stuff – decent editing, decent formatting etc will often be the difference between someone buying and enjoying your book and them not, getting a refund and leaving a snarky review.
If English isn’t your first language then write in your mother tongue. Or hire a good translator. Do not use Google translate…. Do not use AI. It will show.
Formatting is not that hard to learn (heck I learned it). And there are plenty of vids on use of headers and styles in MSword. Or there’s Kindle Create.
If you can’t afford an editor at the minimum run it through Grammarly, Word’s editor and then get at least one other person with a good grasp of the language to read it through. You won’t spot your own mistakes.
2 – READ THE KDP FORUM – read the forum posts from the established members. (particularly the Know your payments/reports etc) and the countless posts from people who didn’t follow the rules. There are some snarky people there (I include myself in this) who give what might be seen as…abrupt or rather sarcastic answers, but mostly this is due to people not bothering to do any research, or read any of the guidance and then making mistakes that could be avoided. KDP is unforgiving. It’s not a training ground. If you break the rules, inadvertently or otherwise then it’s likely your book will be blocked, and possibly your account terminated. That said, forewarned is forearmed – read the forum – see what other people have done wrong, and then avoid it.
There are many successful author/publishers there who do follow the rules, do know what they are doing and will give advice. Although it might not be the advice you want to hear…
3- SUCCESS IS RELATIVE – don’t compare yourself to other authors. People write and publish for many reasons. Some books sell, some don’t. Most don’t. If you write to make a living at it you need to be very good, very lucky and very persistent. But many people write because they enjoy it, they have a story to tell, they like to be creative. One person may view getting a book published and a few dozen copies sold as success, the next person won’t. They are both correct.
4- REVIEWS – bad reviews happen. Deal with it. Unless the review is defamatory, inciteful etc it’s unlikely to be removed because Jonny or Jane didn’t like your book. Reviews are for other customers, not to boost your ego. Your friends, family and other people can’t review your book. You can’t review your book. Read the review guidelines. Not everyone will leave a review or a rating. Reviews don’t sell books. A good product and good marketing and good luck and hard work sells books. Sometimes.
5- LEARN NEW SKILLS, Self-publishing is not just about writing. If you can’t afford to hire someone to format or edit your book, or produce a nice cover, or market it, then expect to learn how to do some or all of these. Any business requires you to have certain skills to succeed. There are countless people on the KDP forum who start on the journey with nothing, and expect it to be an instant money giver. No. You may have the most awesome idea for a book, sure, go write it, but there’s a great deal more than that in publishing.
6- It’s SELF-PUBLISHING – i.e. you do what you need to do yourself – (see point 5). Age is not a barrier to learning new things. KDP will allow you to upload your manuscript and publish on their site, and give you effectively a store front, but they will not edit, market, or format your book. They will expect certain criteria to be met, they expect rules to be followed. If anyone purporting to be KDP offers to ‘upload’ your book for you, run for the hills. They are NOT kdp.
7- AUTHOR NAME MUST BE A HUMAN NAME – you can publish with a name other than your legal name but it has to be a human sounding name. So ‘JP Smithson’ is fine. ‘JP Colouringbooks’ isn’t. People have had their accounts terminated for this.
8- DON’T BE A JERK. The forum members and top contributors on the forum give their advice and time for free. If you have an issue and want advice expect to give the information in order to get that advice. None of us work for Amazon, so don’t get snarky. Ditto – if you do need to contact support and deal with a KDP rep. Be polite, give the information clearly as to the issue and don’t expect an immediate fix. Don’t get snarky or unpleasant. They are just doing their job, it’s not their fault you don’t read the help pages, or didn’t understand something.
9- YOU CANNOT PUBLISH THE SAME CONTENT OVER AND OVER. No, you can’t have the same notebook interior and slap ten different covers on it.
10- IF YOU GET TERMINATED YOU CANNOT SIMPLY OPEN A NEW ACCOUNT. You can’t. You can’t use someone else’s details either.
KDP’s rules for publishing Don’t like them? Don’t trust Amazon? Don’t publish there. There are other options, but all of them have similar criteria. It’s a business – remember that.
Links to the Help Pages and TnC. READ THEM.
Library of Erana 